Sister Visit!!!!!!

Last week I had my first family visit from home! I was so beyond excited to have my sister, Christy, come to spend the week with me. Driving to the airport Saturday afternoon I had trouble keeping myself from shaking. For months now I'd been daydreaming of having my first family visitor and all of the things that I would want to pack into their visit so that they could fall in love with this place like I have.
Having Christy here was incredible. Since we had our Spartanburg team here last week she dove right into the regular week routine with us- Waking up early to help Dan on breakfast duty, running out to the market, butcher shop and bakery with me on afternoon errands, and even assisting the dental team out in their barrio medical clinic for a day. But in-between all the work we made sure to sneak away for some fun too. She came along to visit friends, learned to play some dominoes, climbed the cathedral tower and played lots of games with me and Dan.
I really can't imagine a more perfect week. We had so many wonderful adventures and now I'm just trying not to miss her too much and to make plans for all the great things we'll do NEXT time...

I LOVE her! What a great week!

$33 Food Challenge: CONCLUSION

      I have a few days to report since I have been M.I.A. from blogging for a couple days. My apologies. Day 4 consisted of more oatmeal and sugar for breakfast and later went back to the bakery for more of those “Dominican corndogs” ($1) and several chinolas ($.45) which left me, as usual, wanting more food and ultimately hungry and only $3 left to me name.  Day 5 I broke done and bought salt for about $.50 to add to my eggs which I had for a late breakfast and then had french toast for dinner and a banana ($.10) in between.  I was at $2.40 left, beginning to run low on bread and oatmeal and completely out of eggs. There were only 2 days left, but it must be said that I was considerably crankier then normal. I might have lashed out at Kari once or twice. On the plus side everyone noticed me getting skinnier. Day 6 is were it all came undone. I foolishly skipped breakfast and went to Barahona with my Dominican friend Olvis to look at some larimar stones.  By the time we got done it was well passed lunch time and I was starving. He and his friend were also quite hungry and had decided to go out to lunch.... I went along. I could say that I was forced to go because I needed to be polite and they wouldn’t understand, but that’s not really true at all.  It was my idea to eat lunch and they would have understood, at least a little.  We had fried fish and rice and I was the happiest I have ever been in my entire life- wedding day coming in a close 2nd.  The food tasted so good and when I was done I was completely full.  I was like a weight got lifted of my entire existence.  Sounds dramatic but I am being serious.  The done side is the meal was about $5 which put me over by almost $3.  I tried to live on a modest Budget and I failed.  I only had 5 and a half days.  However I did learn more then I thought I would. 

I am more convinced then ever that even though Jesus promised us the poor would always be among us, that this is not what God wanted for his children.  I have never been so hungry for so long and I could have stopped whenever I wanted (in fact I did). The entire time I felt weak, unhappy, unfocused and sick.  There is a saying I’ve heard that says giving medicine to a sick person with nothing to eat is like washing your hands and drying them in dirt. I have a much deeper respect for any group that organizes food drives or soup kitchens. Jesus says that God gives us good gifts and when we ask we shall receive. I believe that these people are God’s good gifts to anyone that is hungry.  They are bringing the Kingdom in very real ways.  

Viv Grigg, a missionary in the slums of the Philippians wrote (if i remember correctly) “the poor need not only the Bread of Life, but bread for life.”  I have always believed that it was important for the church to find a balance between evangelistic ministry and the ministry of meeting real physical needs. And while I still believe that nothing could be greater then the message of salvation through Christ, I have a new appreciation for the fact that our love and words are empty as long as their stomachs remain so. I feel more convicted than ever that we should always give food to those who are hungry, no matter what. My guess is that anyone who says that food programs are social programs that enable the poor to stay poor has never gone hungry. How is someone supposed to study or work when they haven’t eaten in 2 days?? Even though I was no where near starvation, the lack of fulfilling meals and proper nutrition was physically and mentally crippling. I could barely focus on anything but my stomach by the end. 

Anyone who tried to do this with their families of small kids probably faced challenges with the moral idea of letting their kids go hungry, maybe even wondering if social services might find out and take them away.  If parents would not want their kids to go hungry why would God want his children to?  In the end I am taking this experience back to where it started.  The man who accused us of not understanding what it is really like to be Dominican... well I am still not Dominican but I understand a little better. Since Saturday I have been bringing dinner every night to him and the other guards here at the Guesthouse. It’s not much, but I imagine it is what Jesus might do if he was here in San Juan.

Dan's $33 Food Challenge: The first 3 days..

After a conversation and challenge given by a friend of ours here last week, Dan has decided to go a week on only $33 dollars worth of food. That is the average minimum wage that many of our friends and neighbors here in the Dominican Republic live off of every week and use to not only by food, but also gas for their stoves/motos, clothes, school supplies and any other daily needs. We know that even living among the poor, there are many layers of poverty that can never be understood until they are lived...

DAY ONE

So day one of eating on $33 a day was less than fun. For starters Kari is not going to try it this week (her sister is in town) so I cut the amount if half rounding down to $16. I skipped breakfast which was easy. I had oatmeal for lunch which was less then fun seeing as I am not an oatmeal fan at all so dumped brown sugar on it to make it tolerable. That resulted in a sugar rush and later crash. The worst part was after eating oatmeal until I couldn’t stand it, I was still hungry. For dinner I watch everyone eat pasta with cheese, sausage and mushrooms, brownies, fresh green beans and fruit while I had two pieces of white toast without butter and two eggs. I even ate the heal of the loaf which I would normally discard. I guess eating on so little money makes you never throw food away. I was very pleased with the eggs though. Even though I did not grease the pan I was able to have them over easy with out the yokes breaking. Seems small I know, but trust me today was a challenge. I would be lying if I said at no point did I think about quitting.

DAY TWO

I made some poor choices today regarding my food finances. I started out pretty good, more oatmeal and sugar for breakfast and a banana. The banana is about 15 cents while the oatmeal, bread, sugar, and eggs I bought at the beginning of the week only cost $5 and I have plenty of those left. So I WAS feeling pretty on top of this, then lunch happened. Margo served mashed I’m-not-not sure-what-it-is that looks a lot like sweet potatoes and salami (very dominican) and I couldn’t sit there and not eat it. I had to, the salt goodness was calling to me and so I did what normally do, i ate. It’s a pretty simple dish that cost 100 pesos or about $2.50 in the market. Not a great choice but it wasn’t going to break me. After that I had a chinola to wash it down, another 15 cents. Later that evening I went to the bakery and picked up bread. In the display case there they had a hot dog wrapped in an empanada shell, a sort of Dominican corn dog, and it only cost 50 cents. I had to try one… plus one. Another dollar, bringing my daily total to $3.80. Crap. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot but that is just shy of 25% of my $16 allowance in just one day. Not to worry though, I can still do this. I will just have to not eat much tomorrow. That sounds horrible though because even though I “binged” today at not point was I really full and now at 7 o’clock I am hungry again. Thinking about being hungry right now and knowing that tomorrow I will have little to no relief from that really bites.

DAY THREE

Day 3 did not go as expected. I thought I was going to be miserable and hungry most of the day, instead I was miserable and sick. Started the day off with 3 pieces of french toast and 3 fried eggs, without butter or syrup. I did have to buy milk for $2.00 but it was worth it, kid of…. I never thought I would miss condiments as much as I do. Don’t get me wrong, this breakfast was better then oatmeal but french toast without butter or syrup is not right. At least for lunch the chinola I had was sweet (another 15 cents) and that is when my cold sucked away my appetite. I went the rest of the day without any thoughts of food. I did have 2 fria frias which are kind of like snow cones only $1 total just to put something into my body. I never thought I would see the silver lining to being sick, (other then missing school) I can’t help but wonder though if my lack of nutrition may have helped cause this. Well in any event I have spent only 11.50 and still have plenty of bread, eggs milk and oatmeal.

$33 Food challenge: Day One

So day one of eating on $33 a day was less than fun. 


For starters Kari is not going to try it this week (her sister is in town) so I cut the amount if half rounding down to $16. I skipped breakfast which was easy. I had oatmeal for lunch which was less then fun seeing as I am not an oatmeal fan at all so dumped brown sugar on it to make it tolerable. That resulted in a sugar rush and later crash. The worst part was after eating oatmeal until I couldn’t stand it, I was still hungry. For dinner I watch everyone eat pasta with cheese, sausage and mushrooms, brownies, fresh green beans and fruit while I had two pieces of white toast without butter and two eggs. I even ate the heal of the loaf which I would normally discard. I guess eating on so little money makes you never throw food away. I was very pleased with the eggs though. Even though I did not grease the pan I was able to have them over easy with out the yokes breaking. Seems small I know, but trust me today was a challenge. I would be lying if I said at no point did I think about quitting.